desire

n.

1. The wish to enjoy

   aspiration, longing, yearning, craving, wish, want, motive, will, urge, eagerness, ardor, solicitude, propensity, predilection, fancy, greed, avidity, cupidity, covetousness, obsession, frenzy, craze, mania, urge, appetite, hunger, thirst, passion, attraction, rapaciousness, fondness, liking, inclination, proclivity, ravenousness, ardent impulse, voracity, relish, grasping, monomania, pining, hankering*, itch*, stomach*, yen*; see also ambition 1, greed.

   Antonyms indifference*, apathy*, aversion. *

2. Wish

   request, hope, want; see wish 2.

3. Erotic wish to possess

   lust, concupiscence, passion, urge, hunger, appetite, fascination, doting, infatuation, fervor, excitement, amorousness, sexual love, carnality, libido, lechery, lasciviousness, sensual appetite, sexual appetite, prurience, priapism, carnal passion, salaciousness, lecherousness, erotism, eroticism, erotomania, satyriasis, nymphomania, biological urge, estrus, the hots*, rut*, heat*, horniness*, lech*; see also love 1.

   Antonyms abstinence*, coldness, frigidity.

desire

v.

1. To wish for

   want, long for, crave, covet, fancy, aspire, yearn for, desiderate, set one's heart on, ache for*, die for*, die to*; see also want 1, yearn.

2. To request

   ask for, seek, solicit; see beg 1.

3. To want sexually

   lust after, long for, hunger for, wish for, have the hots for*, be turned on by*, have hot pants for*; see also want 1.

desire, generally interchangeable with the other words here in the sense of `to long for," stresses intensity or ardor to desire success; wish is not so strong a term as desire and has special application when an unrealizable longing is meant he wished summer were here; want, specifically suggesting a longing for something lacking or needed, generally is a more informal equivalent of wishshe wants, or wishes, to go with us; crave suggests a strong desire to gratify a physical appetite or an urgent need to crave affection